How farming could employ Africas young workforce and help build peace Kola Masha
Since 1997, researchers
at the University of Sussex
have monitored global trends
in armed conflict.
Their research clearly shows
that in Africa, over the last 10 years,
armed conflict has gone up by sevenfold.
Let’s think about that:
sevenfold in a single decade.
Why is this?
We believe, as oxygen is to fire,
so are unemployed youth to insecurity.
We have a lot of youth on this continent.
Youth like Sandra,
who, on a Saturday morning in March 2014,
woke up excited at the prospects
of getting a coveted job
at the Nigerian Immigration Services.
She kissed her daughter goodbye,
left her home,
never to return.
Sandra and 15 other young Nigerians
died that day, applying for a job,
in the ensuing stampede,
as tens of thousands of people applied
for a few thousand open positions.
In the last 20 years, 20 million youth
have entered the Nigerian workforce alone.
Today, half our population
is under the age of 18.
That’s almost 80 million people
that will be entering the workforce
in the next 20 years.
My friends,
if a wave of 20 million people
entering the workforce
triggered Niger Delta crisis,
Fulani herdsmen crisis
and Boko Haram,
I ask you:
What will four times that number do?
To do my part to solve this challenge,
in 2012, I moved to a small village
in northern Nigeria,
in the center of the area
most recently hit
by the spread of insecurity,
brutal bombings and searing poverty,
with an idea:
Could we create an economic buffer
to halt the spread of this insecurity,
by unlocking the power of agriculture
as a job-creation engine?
We knew this had been done before
in countries like Thailand,
where, in 1980, they suffered from
the same economic challenges as us.
Today, however, Thailand produces
two million cars a year –
more than the United Kingdom –
with over 30 percent of its workforce
as highly commercial,
profitable small farmers,
with an unemployment rate
of less than one percent.
How did they do this?
In the 80s, Thailand dramatically improved
the productivity of its small farmers,
ensuring that it was able
to start to dominate
export markets for produce.
Building on this strength,
they attracted investment
and started to process,
being able to export higher-value products
like starch from cassava.
Finally, coupled
with investment in education,
they started to expand
to even higher-value manufacturing.
To make our idea a reality
and follow a path similar to Thailand,
we knew that we would have to sell
young farmers on farming.
A young man in northern Nigeria,
for the purpose of today’s
discussion, we’ll call “Saminu,”
made it very clear to me
that this would not be easy.
Saminu grew up in a beautiful village
in northern Nigeria.
And he tells wondrous stories
of playing for hours with his friends,
running up and down
the beautiful rock formations
that dot the countryside around his home.
Despite this beauty, Saminu knew
that the first chance he got,
he would leave.
He did not want to be a farmer.
Growing up, he saw his parents
work so hard as farmers,
but barely get by.
As he says, they had “babu” – nothing.
Young farmers like Saminu
do not have access to the cash
to buy the farming products
to pair with their hard work
to be successful.
When their meager harvest came in,
desperate for cash, they would sell
most of it at fire-sale prices,
when, if they could just wait six months,
they could get 50 percent more.
Hence, Saminu left to the city,
where he soon realized
that life was not easy.
He borrowed a very old motorcycle,
with tires that were
more patches than tires,
to become a motorcycle taxi driver.
He lived in constant fear every day
that his precious, tattered motorcycle
would be ripped away from him,
as it had before.
But he got it back, thankfully.
He knew of others, however,
who were not so lucky –
other young men who,
once they’d lost their motorcycles,
became destitute.
Angry, these young men set
out to wreak vengeance
on a society that they believed
had turned its back on them.
Saminu told me that
they joined insurgent groups,
often acting as getaway drivers
in bombings and kidnappings.
To end this cycle of insecurity,
we must make farming a viable choice.
We must ensure that these young men,
on their small farms,
can earn enough money
to make a life for themselves;
to make a future.
The question now is how.
Recognizing that Africa
has grassroot-level leadership,
we simply developed a model
to bring the professional management
and investment to scale
to these grassroot leaders.
We called it “Babban Gona” –
“great farm” in Hausa.
Upon reaching the village in 2012,
I traveled from community to community,
trying to convince people of our idea,
trying to recruit farmer members.
We failed woefully that first year,
barely recruiting 100 brave souls.
But we persevered.
We kept doing what we promised,
slowly we gained their trust.
More farmers joined us.
Fast-forward now five years.
With a passionate and committed team
and the tremendous support
of our partners,
we grew dramatically,
today, serving 20,000 small farmers,
enabling them to double their yields
and triple their net income
relative to their peers.
We are very proud of the fact –
(Applause)
Fast-forward three years,
Saminu has earned enough money
to buy three goats for his mother
to start a goat-rearing business,
owns his own retail store
and bought not one, but two motorcycles,
with vanity license plates: “Babban Gona.”
(Applause)
My friends,
in the next 20 years,
over 400 million Saminus
are entering the African workforce,
with potentially half of them
having opportunities in agriculture.
To unlock these opportunities,
through models similar to ours,
they would require 150 billion dollars
a year in financing.
This is a big number.
But if we can tap into commercial debt,
it is a small number –
only 0.1 percent of all the debt
in the world today,
10 cents out of every 100 dollars.
This is why we designed our model
to be very different from conventional
agricultural development programs.
In a few short years, we have shown
that our model works,
is high-impact and can turn a profit,
attracting commercial investors
that do not typically invest
in small farmers in Africa.
Imagine a world where millions
of young men across Africa,
hardworking young men,
have other options.
I know these driven, ambitious young men
will make the right choice.
We can realize this dream
if they have a choice.
Thank you.
(Applause)